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Advertising supplement provided by Owens Corning

Safety Testing — Another important point to check is whether the insulation has been tested to substantiate its claims of safety and performance. This point seems rather basic but in fact some insulation products have yet to be tested.

As expected, the most widely used insulation material — fiberglass — has undergone the most safety testing. During the past 50 years more than 600 reports and scientific articles have been published on the health aspects of fiberglass. Based on the weight of evidence and reviews by several major health organizations, there is widespread support for the claim that fiber glass insulation is safe to manufacture and use.

The performance testing of insulation referenced in building and energy codes is generally done following standards set by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). A few of the common tests for insulation performance are ASTM C518 for thermal performance, ASTM E970 for radiant flux fire safety, and ASTM E136 for non-combustibility.

Newer vs. Better — There is often a knee-jerk reaction to assume that traditional products are not as good as something new. In such cases traditional products are assumed by default to be not as innovative as the newer products. But buyers and specifiers need to look deeper. Just because a product is new or is making certain marketing claims doesn’t mean it’s the best option.

An example of this is the Capitol Area East End Complex in Sacramento, Calif., where a $392-million five-building construction project built the state’s largest and greenest office complex to date.

Hearing about a new fiberglass insulation that is made without adding formaldehyde, architects chose it for the first phase of the project. The one local supplier of that product was awarded the installation contract. Later, the design/build contractor learned that his choices weren’t so limited because standard fiberglass insulation easily met the environmental and emission requirements of the project — in fact standard fiberglass insulation exceeded the requirements. This project set very low indoor emission requirements for products, including insulation. When testing was done for traditional fiberglass insulation, independent laboratory tests showed only trace amounts of formaldehyde being detectable — at half the state requirement. The general contractor had several bidders vying for the next job and opted to use standard fiberglass insulation for the much-larger second phase of the complex.

About Owens Corning Owens Corning is a world leader in building materials systems and composites systems. Founded in 1938, the company had sales of $5 billion in 2003. Additional information is available on Owens Corning’s Website at www.owenscorning.com or by calling the company’s toll-free General Information line: 1-800-GET-PINK®. 800-GET-PINK® www.owenscorning.com